In order to purchase certain high-ticket items, such as a home, a car, a boat or the like, a consumer must often times obtain a loan from a financial institution. To obtain such a loan, the consumer must submit a loan application to the financial institution which, in turn, evaluates the customer's ability to repay the loan. Typically, a financial institution will require insurance of the collateral, i.e. the home, the car or the boat, in order to grant the loan.
Heretofore, it has been recognized that a consumer will only purchase insurance when the consumer perceives a need for the product. Further, most consumers do not expend a substantial amount of time or effort evaluating the differences among the insurance offerings of different companies. When required to purchase the insurance by a financial institution, the consumer will usually contact a minimal number of insurance companies and select a policy therefrom. As a result, consumers often obtain insurance coverage which does not fully meet their needs.
In view of the foregoing, insurance companies tend to expend a substantial amount of time and effort in order to obtain new policy holders. The insurance companies are constantly trying to sell products to consumers who do not see a compelling reason to purchase the product at the time the insurance company is attempting to sell the policy to them. As a result, insurance companies spend a substantial amount of money to obtain new policy holders, and as such, the cost of the policies sold by such insurance companies increases.
Therefore, it is a primary object and feature of the present invention to provide a method for generating an insurance quote for a consumer which allows an insurance provider to contact the consumer only at such point when the consumer needs insurance.
It is a further object and feature of the present invention to provide a method of generating an insurance quote for a consumer wherein the insurance provider has access to the maximum amount of information needed from the consumer to provide the best possible risk analysis for the insurance policy.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a method for generating an insurance quote which minimizes the solicitation and the analysis costs for the insurance provider.
It is a still further object and feature of the present invention to provide a method for generating an insurance quote for a consumer which minimizes the effort required of the consumer to obtain such quote.
It is a still further object and feature of the present invention to provide a method for generating an insurance quote for a consumer which may be provided to the consumer as quickly as possible.
It is still a further object and feature of the present invention to provide a method of generating an insurance quote for a consumer which allows for additional insurance quotes to be provided by a provider in response to further requests by the consumer.
In accordance with the present invention, a method is provided for generating an insurance quote in connection with obtaining a loan. The method includes the steps of obtaining data from a lender. At least a portion of the data is provided to the lender by the applicant. The insurance risk is underwritten responsive to the data and an insurance quote is provided to the applicant.
It is contemplated that the insurance quote be provided by the lender, or alternatively, by an insurance provider. The step of underwriting the insurance risk may include the additional step of providing a plurality of insurance companies for underwriting the insurance risk and determining a set of terms for each of a plurality of insurance companies for which those insurance companies would accept the insurance risk. One of the sets of terms may be selected and the insurance quote be provided in response thereto.
If any additional data is needed prior to underwriting an insurance risk, the additional data may be obtained from the applicant. After providing the insurance quote, the data is stored such that an additional insurance quote may be provided in the future in response to a request by the applicant. It is contemplated to obtain permission from the applicant prior to obtaining the data from the lender or prior to generating the insurance quote. It is noted that the data may also be obtained from a third party such as a credit bureau.
In accordance with a still further aspect of the present invention, a method is provided for generating an insurance quote for an applicant for a loan. The method includes the steps of obtaining data from a lender. At least the first portion of the data is provided to the lender by the applicant in applying to obtain the loan. An insurance risk is underwritten responsive to the data for a plurality of insurance companies. One of the plurality of the insurance companies is selected in response to the underwriting. An insurance quote is provided to the applicant from the selected insurance company.
The insurance quote may be provided by the lender, or alternatively, by an insurance provider. The step of underwriting the insurance risk may include the additional step of determining the sets of terms for each of the plurality of insurance companies under which each of the plurality of insurance companies will accept the insurance risk. If additional data is needed prior to underwriting the insurance risk, the insurance data may be obtained from the applicant. After providing the insurance quote, the data is stored so as to allow additional insurance quotes to be provided to the applicant upon request. Prior to obtaining or utilizing the data, permission is obtained from the applicant. It is also contemplated to obtain data from third parties such as a credit bureau.
In accordance with a still further aspect of the present invention, a method is provided for generating an insurance quote for an applicant for a loan. The method includes the steps of requesting permission from the applicant to obtain data from a lender. If permission is granted, the data is obtained from the lender. At least the first portion of the data is provided to the lender by the applicant in order to obtain the loan. If additional data is needed to underwrite the insurance risk, the additional data is obtained. The insurance risk is underwritten in response to data for a plurality of insurance companies. One of the plurality of the insurance companies is selected in response to the underwriting and an insurance quote is provided to the applicant from the selected insurance company. The data is stored after the insurance quote is provided in order that additional insurance quotes may be made to the applicant upon request.
It is contemplated that the insurance quote be provided by a lender, or alternatively, by an insurance provider. It is noted that the additional data may be obtained from a third party such as a credit bureau.